7 posts tagged “journal”

This past Friday, during the downtown art walk, my friend L set up an Art Cafe in one of the metered parking spots in front of our gallery. There was a table, area rug, and a few chairs. We really could have had two tables set up comfortably in the space. On the table were flowers, munchies, and our new location journal for 1001 Journals. We got several people to add words and drawings to the journal. I can't wait to see it grow. We also handed out little buttons that say "Art Groupie" on them, once again L's idea. The buttons were well received and went fast.

The Art Cafe goes quite well with another idea I just came across online last week, PARK(ing) Day. We'll be setting up a park next Friday. It'll be the best we can do with such a short planning time but I am already dreaming about what could be done with more forethought. I would love to plant container gardens in the spring with tomatoes, eggplants, herbs, and onions. Then those could be in the temporary park along with a propane stove and work surface so we could serve (free) homegrown sauce over pasta. (This would be to trumpet my support for locally grown food.)

We will be bringing the Art Cafe out and about around town throughout the year. Hopefully it will foster some community and, at the least, amuse people. What else could we do with a couple of hours and a parking space? I'll keep you posted.

The weather is fabulous out today. A true spring day with sun and some warmth but also the ground and plants are moist and lush because the rain was not too long ago. Not a hot, parched sunny day - a pleasant one. I took some time to sit outside with my journal and write (while being pestered by chickens and dogs and cats) and then to finish the "Making a Living" mail art. Life is good, at least for today.

1. The camera mail arrived at its destination on Wednesday with about half of the photos taken and the whole unit sealed up in a plastic bag. Hmm, I wonder when the bag got put on. The camera has been dropped off for developing and now I wait for the prints. Stay tuned.

2. Journaling is still spotty. I'm trying not to lose faith in myself.

3. Okay, I take back half of my angst expressed last week over the lack of Cut & Paste submissions. I got a pretty good amount of submissions and some very interesting work. I still would have liked to receive more, but I really can't complain. However, I stand by my frustration over how hard it can be to get people to participate in things, both the artists and the (potential) audience. I'm certainly guilty at times, but really, would it be so hard for people to go out into their communities every so often and participate? Sigh.

I wonder how many people, even (especially?) artists, understand how nerve wracking it can be to put on a juried gallery show. I have this Cut & Paste show that I'm organizing and I have only 5 more days to receive entries. As of tonight I think the official tally is 3 entries. Sure, they usually all come pouring in at the last minute, I've seen it happen before, but I'm still trying to brace myself for the worst case scenario. It's hard feeling like no one gives a crap. Like everyone who I handed an entry form to was lying when they said it sounded cool and they were interested. Like the few people I felt sure would follow through and at least make an ATC for the show weren't even dependable.

Part of this is the frustration I've been feeling about trying to get people to get off their butts and do anything. I invite so many people to gallery openings and they never show up. I put on events at the gallery to give people fun, affordable, community-building, non-intimidating art activities to participate in and no one comes. I don't know if I'm a sucker for trying again and again. So far it hasn't made much difference. I could rant more, but that will lead to pages and pages of bitterness. We'll leave it at this. Please, if you can support your local art scene/small businesses/friends, then please do it. Someone out there has put their heart into this stuff.

In other news, I mailed my camera art last week and am now waiting for it to arrive at its destination (several states away - I hope that gives me good odds for lots of photos). Stay tuned for details.

My journaling has been spotty. Highly spotty. But I promise I have not abandoned it.

Okay, I have dipped my toe into journaling. On Saturday I bought what I consider the perfect journaling notebook - unlined, spiral bound, plain cover, medium sized - so that I couldn't use the excuse that I didn't have the right notebook. Yes, I am a such a control freak that I must have just the right notebook. My mom offered to make one for me, but she hasn't done it yet and I'm not going to wait forever for that to happen.

However, the Perfect Notebook sat unused for the next three days. Yesterday I watched the documentary Unknown White Male (yes, I am a giant film nerd who watches a ton of documentaries) and it brings up so many questions about identity and knowing one's history. The main character Doug, who suffers from complete amnesia, has to have his history reconstructed by family and friends. He talks about how this history he is given is somewhat tainted by the way each person remembers the events. If Doug had had journals that he had kept, he could have gotten his own version of each memory. I have written previously how writing our own histories is important for future generations, but now I see how truly important it can be for ourselves. Not that I didn't think it would be for my own benefit before, but now I've realized what the most extreme case could be.

Of course, for my part, in last night's journal entry I wrote stupid things about hummingbirds and chickens and the moon. I wonder what will be important to me someday. I'm not trying to belittle myself, but I want to embrace the simple, lovely things in life yet I wonder if anyone else cares. I don't much feel like recording the details of my work at the gallery or other crap out in the real world. Hopefully the bias I build into my journals will still make them valuable to me and to others in the future.

I haven't picked up that damn Florida journal since I got home. Haven't done any other journaling. I don't even think about it very much. I'm not very good at integrating new things into my life, then I get frustrated because I haven't magically become the new and improved me, and then I give up. Perhaps I should take some more time to try to figure this out. I mean, I think about reading Dan Price's book and how I really and truly loved and agreed with what he said. And this is a time in my (adult) life when I have more time to myself than I ever have before. I really need to not give up on journaling, but right now all I do is either not think about it or feel guilty. My only excuse is that since I'm not having to commute to school or work daily right now, I don't have that extra bus time to myself that I had before. Mostly I used it for keeping up on reading magazines, but sometimes I used it for writing too. Funny how I can't seem to find time to just sit and have some alone time here at home. Of course, I know if I did I would probably just fall asleep and then I'd really get nothing done.

I'm back from a great trip to Florida and I want to address some of the things that have inspired me about journaling in the past few months.

September 23rd I went to southern Oregon to attend the memorial service for Tee Corinne, an amazing artist and human being. I only had the pleasure of meeting her once, but I can't complain. She invited me to join her and a small group for dinner after the lecture I had attended. So I went to the memorial to pay my respects and have a little more vicarious time with Tee. Listening to all the stories that were told about her, I felt reaffirmed about certain things that are important for being an artist (networking, pushing others in their artistic endeavors, teaching). One thing that struck me was at least one eulogy that talked about how Tee emphasized the importance of lesbians recording their own history (written and photographic) because if we don't do it, no one else will. How true, especially considering how often history is slanted to leave out any queerness that was there. So when I journal, it will be partly in honor of Tee.

A few weeks ago I got my copy of Dan Price's book How to Make a Journal of Your Life. His love of the simple, quiet moments in life appeals to me greatly. (His OPB interview segment on the website is an excellent taste of what is in the book.) My life will probaby never be truly simple, but I do savor the days when my only worries are feeding the chickens and harvesting veggies from the garden. This part of my life is what I have started journaling about a little and will eventually become a zine. Again, the basic theme from Dan is that no one will write your history if you don't. It is a gift to your future self and to future generations.

Finally, this past week in Florida, we stayed in Everglades City and (among many other things) went to the Museum of the Everglades. In the little gift shop area there were cards for sale featuring images from The Storter Collection. From the back of the cards: "Rob Storter (1894-1987) grew up in the village of Everglade and then lived in Naples when it was only a tiny fishing port. In later life, he sketched his recollections of pioneering days." The images on the cards are a combination of sketches and text, nothing fancy but again something important to the person who made them. And because they are apparently the only journal of their kind in the area, they have become important not only to the Storter family but to the whole region as well. I am very attracted to their combination of image and text on the same page.

I am reluctant about starting to journal again. Maybe self-conscious is a better way to put it. I used to keep a journal when I was young. It was probably pretty dumb, I don't know. I can't look back on them anymore because one day in high school I was so depressed that I left school early, came home, and burned every single journal. It's hard to start again after something like that. I'm starting by recording my trip to Florida before I forget too much. I've only gotten a couple of days written so far, but it's a goal for me to finish up in the next few days. Then we'll see what my next step into journaling is.